OpenAI doubles down on London
OpenAI has leased a large King’s Cross office intended to house up to 544 employees, signalling expansion of its London presence even as it pauses a U.K. data‑centre project called Stargate. The move pairs a talent build‑out with a more cautious approach to capital‑intensive infrastructure. (finance.yahoo.com)
OpenAI has signed a long-term lease for its first permanent London office, betting on headcount growth in King’s Cross. (cnbc.com) The site spans 88,500 square feet at Regent Quarter, across Jahn Court and the Brassworks Building, and is designed for up to 544 employees. OpenAI said the office is expected to open in 2027. (uktech.news) OpenAI currently has about 200 staff in London across research, engineering, customer support, policy, communications, marketing and sales. The new space would give it room to more than double that footprint. (uk.news.yahoo.com) The lease lands weeks after OpenAI said on February 26, 2026, that London would become its largest research hub outside the United States. Reuters reported at the time that the company cited Britain’s technology ecosystem as a reason to expand there. (usnews.com) King’s Cross has become one of London’s densest artificial intelligence clusters, with Google DeepMind, Meta, Synthesia and Wayve nearby. OpenAI’s new address puts it in the middle of that hiring market. (cnbc.com) The office deal also comes less than a week after OpenAI paused its United Kingdom Stargate data-centre project. Reports on April 9 said the company cited high energy costs and grid-connection delays for the halt. (finance.yahoo.com) That split shows two different expansion tracks. OpenAI is still adding researchers, engineers and commercial staff in Britain, while moving more carefully on the power-hungry infrastructure needed to train and run large artificial intelligence systems. (uk.finance.yahoo.com) For the British government, the new office is an investment win with limits. Reuters said the Stargate pause was a setback to the government’s push to position the United Kingdom as a global artificial intelligence hub. (english.aawsat.com) OpenAI opened its first London office in 2023, and this 2027 move would turn that presence into a permanent base sized for a much larger team. The company is still planting a bigger flag in London, even as it pulls back from a much costlier bet elsewhere in Britain. (electronicsweekly.com)
